


and i'll watch over you

by towokuwusatsuwu



Series: Femslash February 2018: Tokusatsu Edition [8]
Category: Kamen Rider Wizard
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Relationship, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, Protectiveness, also i gave the phantoms prettier eyes it is what it is, feat. my personal wizard au
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-09
Updated: 2018-02-09
Packaged: 2019-03-15 22:10:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,688
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13622532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/towokuwusatsuwu/pseuds/towokuwusatsuwu
Summary: Koyomi takes Medusa in after the fall of Wiseman, a surprising alliance for the wizards.





	and i'll watch over you

Koyomi finds her sprawled across the doorstep of Remnants, her clothes tattered and her hair tangled and matted around her head. She doesn’t need to crouch down and brush that hair back to find the face beneath, but she does just the same. The face is one she knows well, because Mayu has the same one. Medusa is unconscious, and if Koyomi’s eyes do not betray her, probably quite badly injured. Hunted like a prey animal after Wiseman had been killed.

Haruto had filled her in on the story she had been missing, a pair of Phantoms who had come together to take down their leader. That leader had primarily been why Medusa was poised so highly among her kind, but without him around, she had plenty of her own kind after her.

She probably had not come here for sanctuary, all things considered. More likely than not, she had come here to pay Haruto back for his constant interference in her plans because a Phantom as proud as Medusa would never stoop so low as to ask someone for help.

Physically, Koyomi is not strong. She still gets her arms more or less around Medusa, enough to pull her into the shop and over to the couch where she lays her, her arms straining at the effort of moving the Phantom when she is purely dead weight. But she gets her inside by herself just the same before locking up and hoping that none of her kind know she came here, that Koyomi was able to get her inside before they saw her lying on the ground.

There isn’t much she can do to help Medusa while she is still out, but she does what she can, cleaning the scrapes and cuts she can see on her arms and her face. When she goes to pull a twig free from Medusa’s hair, a hand snaps shut around her wrist, the grip surprisingly tight and strong, enough to make Koyomi suddenly afraid of the woman she had chosen to help.

Medusa looks up at her, eyes burning like violet flames. “What do you think you are doing?”

Their encounters with one another had been few and far between, and the first one had ended with Koyomi nearly dying when Medusa’s tentacles had drained the mana from her body and left her lying cold. Likely, she would have actually died for good if Haruto had not come in time; Koyomi has no reason to trust Medusa, nor help her, and doing so really puts her and her friends at risk more than it does to aid them. After all, she is not stupid. She knows Medusa would never create an alliance with them, not for anything in the world, because the only goal she had ever had was to help usher in the second Sabbath at the bequest of Wiseman. Likely, all she wants is to get back at the two Phantoms who had robbed her of her leader and to destroy Haruto and Nitoh, and Mayu, and any other wizard who stands in her way.

“You were injured and passed out on our doorstep. I thought I might help you.” Koyomi pulls her hand free, but she knows the only reason she manages is because Medusa let her go. How many times had she told the others not to touch her, and this is the first thing Medusa does? “If you’re looking for Haruto, he’s upstairs and in bed. And if you don’t have any disagreements, I would prefer you fought outside of the shop. This is home for me.”

Medusa curls her lip and looks away. “Why help me? You know who and what I am, Doll.”

“It’s Koyomi, and you’re right. I know who you are.” Koyomi goes back to dabbing a wound on Medusa’s cheek to do something with her nervous hands. “If you wanted to, you would have killed me by now. Do you want a shower? You look kind of rough around the edges.”

“Fine,  _ Koyomi. _ ” Medusa lays heavy emphasis on her name, no doubt to mock her, but she takes up the offer and Koyomi shows her to the bathroom just the same.

* * *

Medusa comes and goes as she pleases with seemingly no thought about the time or hours, and more often than not Koyomi has woken up to find Medusa sitting at the foot of her bed with an unamused expression on her face. She had cleaned herself up, found clothing that was not torn, and insisted she was not fighting alongside the wizards because she liked them.  _ They still haven’t found a suitable weakness in Gremlin or Legion. Clearly, they still need my help. _

On more than a few occasions, Medusa had come in with the others, singed from a recent battle, fuming, her amethyst eyes blazing so hot that Koyomi swore she could feel that fire threatening to burn Remnants down. Instead, she simply flopped down on the nearest piece of furniture and snapped at the others not to jostle at her. After the first few times, she no longer pulls away when Koyomi sits down to help her clean up after a fight. She makes faces at the sting of alcohol but never yanks her head away like Nitoh still does.

“You’ll get them next time,” Koyomi tells her once, and Medusa turns her head oddly at the words, blinking long lashes at her. “Hold still. You need a bandage for this one.”

* * *

“It’s weird having her here. Not that I’m saying she can’t stay here if that’s what she wants to do, but…” Mayu trails off, her hands curling into fists, and Koyomi lays a hand on her shoulder. She can’t imagine how hard it is for Mayu to be in close quarters with the Phantom who had stolen her sister’s face and her family’s lives, and yet she had been calm and collected when Medusa was near her. “I’m going to get her back for it, still. I mean that.”

She would. Of that, Koyomi is certain. Mayu’s family had been what brought her back from the edge of becoming a Phantom, and she had used her love of them as her anchor. When her teacher had been revealed as nothing more than a cruel man using her for his own gain— Koyomi’s  _ father, _ the White Wizard, Wiseman and the creator of Phantoms— she had been devastated and nearly lost her way. It was Medusa’s continued existence that drove her to keep fighting. One day, the two of them were going to fight each other.

“You have to do what you have to do. Once all of this is over, I’m sure she’d be more than willing to fight you. She seemed like she was interested in the idea all of the times she baited you,” Koyomi says, and Mayu’s fists loosen a little, and she manages a slow deep breath before flashing Koyomi a small but still-there smile. “Just a little longer, you know?”

Then, though, Mayu frowns at her. “I mean… I suppose I shouldn’t just be saying this in front of you. The two of you have been together an awful lot. I mean, I shouldn’t judge, but—”

“What?” Koyomi feels her face heat up and she quickly shakes her head, trying for a laugh that sounds fake even to her ears. “What are you talking about? I’m not… She’s just… She’s  _ Medusa.” _

“I know who she is. Believe me, I know,” Mayu says, and Koyomi tries to apologize because she didn’t mean it that way, but Mayu lays a hand over hers. “Don’t. It’s okay. I know what you mean, I’m not… I’m just saying that you two spend a lot of time together, and I’m sorry if what I have to do eventually hurts you, but I have to do it. For my family, and for Misa.”

“It’s not like that. She just showed up, and I don’t know why I helped her. Maybe I just felt bad for her, because we at least have each other, but with  _ him— _ ” She winces at the thought of her father, of a man who would have killed countless people just to get back the daughter who had died before her time. “With him gone, she had no one. And I don’t like her. I don’t think any of us do, but she’s a valuable ally right now when we don’t have anyone else who knows the Phantoms as well as she does. Their powers and everything. She doesn’t mean anything to me.”

Mayu looks like she doesn’t quite believe that, but the door swings open and Medusa steps inside, and she immediately pushes herself to her feet. “I’m sorry, but I have somewhere to be. I don’t mean to run out on you, Koyomi.” She squeezes Koyomi’s shoulder meaningfully, shoots Medusa a look, and then brushes past her to the door, shutting it loudly behind her.

“She’s still hung up on her sister, then. That’s too bad,” Medusa murmurs, and Koyomi scowls at her. The Phantom tosses her head and scoffs, but she pushes a bag into Koyomi’s hands, heavy enough that Koyomi almost drops it at first. “You said we needed groceries last night, and, well, I had time. If there’s anything I missed, you can send Haruto after it.”

She’s already halfway up the steps when Koyomi calls “Thank you!” at her back. She slows for just a moment, then picks up her normal pace to the top floor of the building.

* * *

“How does this thing work?” Medusa asks her, poking around her crystal ball one afternoon when nothing eventful had happened and everyone was taking the chance to relax. Except for Medusa, who only seemed to grow stir-crazy when she had nothing to do.

“It’s magic, something you should well understand considering you’ve been fighting with wizards.” Koyomi shoos her hand away, wiping the fingerprints off of the crystal. “I can look into this and see what all of you are up to. Sometimes I worry, but there isn’t much I can do from here except watch after you. It’s better than nothing, I suppose.”

Medusa is quiet for a moment, and Koyomi looks at her out of the corner of her eye, at the voluminous folds of her sea-colored dress and her perfectly straight dark hair and her inquisitive purple eyes, an unusual shade like that of every Phantom. “All of us? Does this mean you look into what I’m doing, as well? Do you watch me from afar?”

“Of course I do. As long as you’re with us, I watch after you. It wouldn’t do us any good to have one of our allies stranded without help, and besides, I worry.” Koyomi doesn’t tell her what worries her, and really, she has no reason to worry. Medusa is strong enough to take care of herself, more than strong enough, and yet Koyomi is still afraid.

The expression she gets for that is confusing even to her, no clear emotion in those eyes she’s come to know so well, but then Medusa smiles at her, slow and a little uncertain, which is nothing like her at all. Koyomi would know. Medusa is strong and confident, a little too much from time to time, but it’s who she is, and Koyomi is used to it.

“I’ll look after you, too,” she says, and Koyomi doesn’t know what to think about that.

* * *

As it turns out, the Phantom Legion was every bit as terrifying as Haruto had made him out to sound when he described the abilities Legion possessed. To be fair, Koyomi had hardly been on the lookout for Phantoms when she decided to take a look, and by the time she properly saw the imprint of the monster beneath his skin, the mismatched orange and storm gray eyes, it was too late.

The calvary had been quick to arrive, though, and she had tried to find a safe vantage point to watch from, not wanting to get too far away just in case.  _ Just in case of what? _ She didn’t know.

“What are you doing here still? You need to get out of here.” Medusa is just as fierce in her Phantom form as always, deflecting some kind of terrifying blast of energy that lingers in the air for a moment before vanishing. “He’s not interested in Gates or Phantoms, he's only interested in destroying someone’s mind once and for all. If you don’t get out of here, you’re going to be next on his list and there won’t be anything we can do to fix it!”

Koyomi runs then, her mind flashing with information, coma patients who had never woken up, a monster who could walk into someone’s mind and destroy everything pure and beautiful about it until there was nothing left of them. He had nearly done the same with Haruto’s Dragon and if he got the better of them during this fight, he was fully capable of destroying their Phantoms and their power as Wizards. She was a walking target for them to worry about if she stayed, so she heads for Remnants and tries to run as fast as her legs will take her.

She stumbles and before she can fall, Medusa is there, yanking her back up onto her feet, then off of the ground and into her arms. “Hold on!”

Medusa barely gets them out of the way in time, but Koyomi sees the slash-mark hanging in the air. She had nearly been opened up.

Medusa had saved her.

* * *

“This one looks nasty,” Koyomi tells her as she dabs a wound on Medusa’s shoulder, already thinking about how to clean and sew the cut in her favorite dress. “You saved my life. Do you want to tell me why you did that, or are you keeping it to yourself?”

Medusa scowls and looks down at the ground, but she seems to summon the fortitude she needs to lift her head back up, fixing Koyomi with her bright and beautiful jewel eyes. “Because he would have done something worse to you than death if he got his hands on you, and I didn’t want him to do that. We barely stand a chance against him as it is…”

Koyomi lays a bandage damp with salve across Medusa’s shoulder, securing it in place with gauze wrapping before surprising herself and wrapping her arms around the Phantom properly. Medusa stills in her embrace, her entire body tensing up like she wants to shove Koyomi away from her, like she’s about to do that. Instead, she softens and turns, wrapping her arms around Koyomi’s shoulders and pulling her closer, pressing her face into Koyomi’s hair. It’s so sudden and shocking that Koyomi doesn’t know what to say, her eyes widening against Medusa’s shoulder even as Medusa hugs her tighter against her body.

“Don’t do that again. Don’t stay when we’re fighting. Don’t put yourself in danger. I know you’re afraid for us, but I don’t know what I’d do if something happened to you.” Medusa leans back to look down at her, framing Koyomi’s face in her hands, and she’s never looked less than fierce but now she looks somewhere between afraid and furious all at once. “Do  _ not _ do that again. You don’t have any right to make me worry like that.”

She leans down and stops for just a moment, looking at war with herself, and Koyomi could put distance between them if she wanted to. Instead, she reaches up, smoothes her fingers through Medusa’s hair, and pulls her down the rest of the way. Her lips are surprisingly warm and soft, the only part of her that isn’t a sharp angle prepared to cut anyone who dares to come too close to her, and Koyomi feels more than privileged for knowing about this.

“I’ll try not to,” she says when she leans back, and Medusa scowls down at her, but she softens when Koyomi laughs and kisses her once more.

She’ll watch over Medusa, and Medusa will watch over her. Everything will be fine.


End file.
